


Having a Daddy

by Ellie226



Series: The Community [10]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Age Play, Daddy Kink, Discipline, F/F, F/M, M/M, Mommy Kink, Multi, Spanking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-06-24 23:04:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19733479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellie226/pseuds/Ellie226
Summary: Danny always wanted a daddy, but the adjustment is a bit harder than he expected.





	1. Chapter 1

Tyler’s POV

The first night was nice. Danny was sweet, wanting my help in building with his blocks. He helped me to make dinner, and although his basic skills in the kitchen were atrocious, he was very eager to assist me.

After dinner, we played for a good long while, then I read to him for a bit. Around 9:00, he started yawning around his thumb, which had been firmly planted in his mouth for a good thirty minutes.

“I think that might be bedtime, sunshine,” I told him.

Danny was snuggled against me, my left arm wrapped around him, and he cuddled closer, “Not tired.”

“Fibber,” I replied, running my fingers under his ribs. “ _ You _ are yawning.”

“Please more story?” he begged, looking up at me from his position against my side. “Please, Daddy?”

He blushed as he said it, thumb sliding from his mouth as he smiled hopefully. I couldn’t help but smile back at him, but I didn’t cave.

“I want jammies and clean teeth and face,” I told him.

“But-”

I kept going, raising an eyebrow, “And if you’re awake enough to do that without whining and complaining, then I could maybe read another chapter or two for you.”

He was up, although he went slowly, and I gently patted his bottom, “Hop to, sunshine. I want to find out what happens next too.”

Danny jumped at the pat, but it moved him along, and he rushed through his evening routine, returning to me with minty breath, clad in striped pajamas, Abul Abbas held in his arms.

“He wants to hear too,” Danny informed me, holding the elephant out for inspection.

“Do you think he’ll be lost?” I asked, taking the toy and then motioning for the little boy to curl back up against me. “Because we’re already a bit in.”

“Abul Abbas is very smart,” he stated, cuddling in and slipping his thumb back into his mouth. “Read.”

“Pardon?” I asked.

He looked up at me, brow knit in confusion, and I said, “What were you asking me to do?”

It took him a minute, mouth twisted up, before he sussed out what I meant, and then he said, “Please read more?”

“I would love to read some more to you,” I replied, going back to the story.

Danny’s POV

Tyler only read me one more chapter before pushing me up onto my feet, saying, “I think it’s bedtime, sweet boy.”

“Nooooo,” I whined, forcing myself to not rub at my eyes. They just felt gritty because of allergies or something. I wasn’t tired.

He laughed at me, “Danny, you’re exhausted. It’s been a big day, and we had a lot of stress. Let’s get you into bed.”

“I don’t want to,” I told him, unable to stop a tiny stomp of my foot.

He didn’t laugh at that. He didn’t even smile. Instead, he looked very stern as he said, firmly, “I heard you, but it’s bedtime. You’re very tired. I know that’s why you’re stomping your foot at me and whining.”

I pouted, clenching my fists, “I don’t want to!”

“Danny,” Tyler’s voice was gentle as he reached forward and grabbed my hands, “we had a fun day today, hmmm?”

“I don’t want to go to bed.”

Tyler’s POV

He looked near tears, worn out and overwhelmed, and I really didn’t want to end our first day together together with punishment. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t, but I felt like I was looking at a little boy who needed sleep more than anything. He’d been yawning practically non-stop since he’d changed.

“Shhh,” I told him, drawing him down onto my lap and wrapping my arms around his waist. “It was a fun day?”

He nodded, tearful, and I continued, keeping my voice quiet, “And now, you have to go to bed, and you don’t want to.”

“I don’t,” he agreed. He was still whining a little, but he sounded pretty pathetic.

“But you know what?” I asked him, hugging him tight. “Tomorrow? We’ll have another fun day. What do you think we should do tomorrow?”

“But you’re going to go home!”

“I was,” I agreed. “Is there something else you’d like me to do?”

“You stay?” he asked.

I nodded, “I could. Do you remember our conversation about using your words?”

“I didn’t know I could ask you to stay,” he defended.

“You know what would be a good way of figuring that out?” I asked, waiting a moment to see if I got a response. When none was forthcoming, I said, “Asking. You’ve got to tell me what you need, Daniel.”

“Yes, sir,” he sighed, relaxed against me.

“Alright,” I said, standing him up and holding him by the hips in front of me as I talked. “I would like you and Abul Abbas to get into bed, please. I’m going to get changed and get ready for bed.”

“But-”

He stopped, not continuing his protest, and I raised an eyebrow, “What, darlin’?”

“I don’t want to go to bed by myself,” he told me, fidgeting a bit and avoiding eye contact.

“You aren’t,” I replied. “I’ll be in shortly. I need to brush my teeth though. Now go on, Daniel. You’ve delayed quite enough.”

It was with a pout that he made his way off to the bedroom, but I ignored it. He was going, even if it wasn’t the most graceful leave taking I’d ever seen, and this was going to be an adjustment.

Danny’s POV   
  


I crawled into bed, hugging Abul and watching the door. When Tyler didn’t join me quickly enough, I reached for my nearby Kindle and found something to read to myself.

“I don’t believe I told you to read,” Tyler’s voice interrupted me. 

Not bothering to glance up, I said, “You told me go to bed. I’m in bed. That’s what you said. I’m just reading a bit.”

“Not right now, you’re not,” he informed me, snapping his fingers and holding out his hand. “Hand it over, sunshine. It’s time to sleep.”

I sighed, explaining, “I just want to finish this chapter.”

Tyler reached for the Kindle, and I jerked it away from him, “Let me finish!”

That didn’t really do much of anything. Although I was sitting up in bed, Tyler was still standing, and he simply out maneuvered me, taking the thing away and putting it on the highest shelf in my closet.

“I was reading that!” I exclaimed, getting out of bed and trying to walk to the closet.

Tyler stopped me, steering me back onto the bed, where he made me sit before kneeling in front of me and looking me in the eye.

“Danny,” he said, voice low, “it’s time for bed. You’re welcome to keep testing to see if I’m going to follow through with the rules we agreed on. But I need you to understand that you’re going to get into trouble if you don’t obey me now. Is that clear?”

“I don’t want to be in trouble,” I told him, shaking my head vehemently.

“Then you need to listen,” he replied, keeping my hands in his. “Which means lay down and close your eyes, please.”

I did what he told me to. I really didn’t want a spanking. But as soon as he got in bed and turned off the lamp, I sat back up.

“I didn’t check the locks,” I explained.

“Lay back down,” he ordered, less politely this time. “I will go and check them. You stay here.”

“You have to check the bars too,” I said, not laying down. “In the windows and the sliding door.”

He nodded, getting out of bed and pushing me until I laid back, “I am confident in my ability to handle that, Daniel. Close your eyes.”

Tyler’s POV

All of the locks were done. I hadn’t expected anything else. Danny always locked doors behind himself; I’d seen him do a hundred times.

I shouldn’t have been surprised by what I saw when I returned to the bedroom, but I was. Danny was sitting back up in bed, staring at the door, lights back on.

“Alright,” I told him, keeping my voice calm. “That’s enough of that for one night, thank you. You can go and find yourself a corner in here to look at.”

“What?” he looked genuinely shocked. “Why?”

I kept moving toward the bed, getting him around the upper arm and then helping him stand before steering him to the corner.

“What did I tell you before I went to check the doors?” I returned.

“I don’t want time out!”

I nodded, seriously questioning that statement. He might have believed it. He probably believed it. If I had to guess, I would say that Danny had figured he was working his way into a spanking, with the most careful pushing on earth. 

He was wrong. I wasn’t going to spank over this. Not at the moment. Among other things, I didn’t relish the idea of having to spank him less than twelve hours after he’d agreed that was okay. Plus, this was exactly the kind of behavior that I felt warranted corner time.

“If you’re not ready to listen to me and sleep,” I told him sternly, staying beside him in the corner and arranging him so that hands were on top of his head, fingers interlaced, “then you can stay here until you change your mind.”

He whined wordlessly, squirming, and I put my hands on his hips, squeezing just a bit, “You need to stand here quietly and still until you’re ready to obey.”

Going back to the bed, I sat down and watched him. It only took him five minutes to crack, saying, “Daddy?”

“Are you ready to go to bed like I’ve asked you?” I asked.

He nodded, and I said, “Pardon?”

“Yesssss,” he whined, sounding near tears again.

I wasn’t thrilled with the tone, but I held out my arms, telling him, “Come ‘ere then, sunshine.”

Danny quickly pulled his hands down, shaking them a bit, before turning and coming to me. He had a few tear tracks on his face, and I wiped at them before tugging him down on my lap.

“Next time,” I murmured, kissing him. “I would prefer you not to whine at me when I ask you a simple question. I really don’t like that. Are you ready for bed now?”

“I don’t like time out,” he informed me, sounding very little. His thumb was back in his mouth, and he snuggled closely. 

“I didn’t expect you to,” I replied. “If you liked it, then it wouldn’t be a very good incentive. Bed?”

He nodded, and I tucked him back under the covers, pulling his body close to mine so that we could cuddle. Lights turned back off, we lay in silence for a few minutes before he said, “Daddy?”

“Yes, Daniel?” I said, warning in my voice.

“I really don’t like time out.”

I nodded at that, although he couldn’t see me, saying, “That’s what makes it work so well for little boys who are having a hard time listening. I bet you’re going to think twice about not going to bed for me next time though.”

“Yes,” he agreed emphatically. After a moment, he said, “I thought you maybe would spank me.”

“I will,” I replied. “At some point. Today, time out seemed like it might work better. You were checking to see what I would do if you didn’t listen, and I showed you.”

“Oh,” his voice was small, words garbled by his thumb. He felt the need to tell me one last time, “I didn’t like it.”

“I understand,” I said. “And unless you want to go back to time out, then you need to quiet down and try to get some rest please.”

  
That got me a little sigh, but he stopped talking, and he fell asleep quickly. I wasn’t surprised. He’d looked exhausted.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny starts really testing and still doesn't want to talk.

Tyler’s POV 

  
  


He woke up the next morning, stretching and groaning before rolling himself tightly against me, and I wrapped my arm around him.

“Good morning, sunshine,” I greeted, kissing the top of his head.

He didn’t respond, and I rolled onto my back, pulling him up on top of me and repeating, “I said, good morning.”

That got me a grumble, and I let my right hand drift down to cup his pajama clad bottom, “Pardon?” I asked.

“Morning,” he grunted.

“Somebody is not a morning person,” I commented, patting a little before rolling him back off of me. “What would you like for breakfast?”

“Not hungry,” he groaned.

I got up from the bed and grabbed both of his hands, pulling him onto his feet. I managed it, but he really did not like me doing that.

“I’m tired,” he insisted, leaning back to the bed.

“Mm hmm,” I replied. “What shall we make for breakfast?”

“Why can’t I go back to sleep?” he asked, whining.

“Because you’ve slept for twelve hours,” I replied. “Breakfast?”

He pouted, not saying anything, and I rubbed his back, “Somebody is really not a morning person, hmmm?”

“I am too,” he grumbled.

“Okay,” I agreed, leading him out of the bedroom and toward the kitchen. “I think that I feel like pancakes.”

He didn’t fight me, but he did mutter, “Don’t want pancakes.”

“Would you prefer something else?”

“Not hungry,” he said.

“Well, we have to eat breakfast,” I replied. “Come on, Danny.”

I tried to get him into the kitchen, but now he wouldn’t move, repeating, “I’m not hungry. I just want a Coke.”

“I don’t think so,” I laughed at him. “Come on, Danny. You can sit at the table, and I’ll make you some breakfast.”

“I said I don’t want anything,” he argued, cranky. “You’re not listening.”

I finally stopped the fruitless tugging on his arm, turning and explaining patiently, “I am listening. I’m disagreeing. You need to eat something, Daniel. Now, I’m not sure why you’re in a mood, but you can spend some time in time out if you need to. Is that what you want?”

“No!” he shook his head.

“Alright then,” I said. “Then why don’t you sit down and keep me company. Would you like something other than pancakes?”

He shook his head, still looking pretty pouty, and I steered him into a chair, saying, “If you don’t have something else you’d prefer, then I’m going to make pancakes. You need to eat breakfast.”

When he didn’t say anything, I grabbed the coloring books and crayons from where I’d stashed them on top the fridge, handing everything over and suggesting, “Why don’t you color me a picture, hmmm, sunshine? I would really like that.”

Danny’s POV

“Don’t want to,” I muttered, rolling a crayon back and forth on the table.

My mutter was maybe a little too loud because Tyler stopped pulling down ingredients and came to squat in front of me, holding my hands between his own.

“Alright, Daniel,” he said, warning me with his tone. “You, little mister, are on the very thinnest of ice. I don’t know what’s up with you, but you are going to end up in time out, or worse, if you don’t knock it off.”

“I don’t want time out,” I said quickly, shaking my head.

He smiled a little, telling me, “Then you definitely don’t want worse. You want to tell me what the problem is?”

Shrugging, I said, “I don’t know. I’m just tired. Can’t I go back to bed?”

“You slept for a really long time,” he told me. “Honey, you should not still be tired.”

“Well, I am,” I informed him, feeling irrationally irritable.

“Okay, you know what?” he asked, standing up and hoisting me by my arm, “I’m about done with the attitude, little man. I don’t like being snapped out. If you can’t be pleasant, then you’re going to need to stand in time out until you’ve decided to be nice.”

I whined as he hurried me to the only vacant corner in the kitchen, “But I don’t want a time out.”

“Your behavior is telling me something different,” he replied, turning me to face the corner. “You go ahead and stand there and think about how you want our morning to go.”

“Fine,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. I was really wondering why I’d asked him to stay.

Tyler leaned in, patting my butt before he took my arms and uncrossed them, putting them at my sides, “You do not want to escalate this, Daniel Christian,” he warned. 

Clenching my fists, I didn’t say anything in response, even though I wanted to. Instead, I stood still and waited.

Tyler’s POV

Danny had warned me that he didn’t like mornings. Back when we first started chatting, I’d tried to hook up with him before work to talk, just a few times. He never wanted to. 

That wasn’t all this was though, at least, I didn’t think it was. Somebody was testing. I had a suspicion that the little boy was curious about spankings. His experience with getting spanked was very minimal, and from what he’d said, he’d never been spanked in a punishment setting. The way that he was acting, I was guessing that was not something he’d be able to say by the end of the day.

I tried to put that thought out of my head, making us both pancakes and bacon. Danny didn’t drink coffee, and so there was no coffee maker for me to use. I knew that he had cans of Coke stored up above the refrigerator, but although I wanted the caffeine, I did not want to set that precedent. Instead, I settled for pulling orange juice from the fridge, pouring us both tall glasses.

It didn’t take long for breakfast to come together, and when things were done, I walked over to the little boy in the corner, placing my hands on his hips and asking him, voice low in his ear, “Are you ready to be nice?”

“I’m not being mean,” he told me, not moving. He sounded like he was going to cry.

“No,” I allowed. “You’re being kind of crabby and snippy though, and I don’t particularly like it. Would you like it if I snapped at you?”

He didn’t say anything, and I took his hand, leading him from the corner and to the table. Sitting, I drew the little boy down onto my lap and wrapping my arms around his waist. 

“So?” I asked him.

Danny looked confused, and I clarified, “Would you like that?”

Slowly, he shook his head, and I asked, “What do you say?”

“Sorry, Daddy,” he mumbled, blushing.

“Good boy,” I praised, kissing his cheek. “Let’s eat some breakfast.”

He tried to get up, but I didn’t let him go, quickly cutting a bite of pancakes and holding it up to his mouth. 

Danny squirmed, saying, “Dadddddyyyyy.”

“What?” I asked him.

“I’m not a baby,” he informed me, moving away from my attempts to feed him. “I can do it.”

I really wanted to feed him, but wanting to feed himself was a perfectly reasonable request, and I handed him the fork, telling him, “Go ahead then.”

Danny’s POV

I hadn’t really thought he’d do that. I figured he’d just tell me tough, and feed me himself. That’s what daddies in stories did. 

Putting the fork back down on the plate, I leaned back against Tyler and said, “I don’t want to.”

“Daniel,” he sighed, sounding frustrated. “You need to eat, baby. Remember? We talked about this. Three meals a day.”

“But I don’t want to,” I told him.

He nodded, lifting me up to stand so that he could look at my face, “Daniel Christian, you have to eat breakfast. Is that what you need to hear me say to you?”

“I just don’t want pancakes,” I tried, making a face. “I’d rather have something else.”

“Mm hmm,” he nodded. “And your opportunity to choose something else was when I asked you earlier. Unless you have some sort of legitimate issue with pancakes, pancakes are what is for breakfast. And I doubt that you have a pancake issue, since I used the mix in your cupboard.”

Shrugging, I explained, “I just don’t feel like them today.”

“Well, that’s not a choice you get to make,” he replied. “Danny, this is not my messing around face. You’re going to eat those pancakes, at least half of what I served you, and you need to drink your juice.”

I just stood, staring at him, and he said, “Do you understand? You’re going to sit at this table until you eat that.”

Making a face, I pulled away, sitting down in my own seat. Tyler pushed a plate over in front of me. He didn’t say anything else. He just ate.

Tyler’s POV   
  
We were going to end up getting to the spanking today. I knew that. I’d really hoped that Danny would behave well enough that I wouldn’t have to spank him for at least a little while, until he trusted me more. Trying to delay it as much as possible, I ate my pancakes, deliberately ignoring his pouting and sighing as he pushed food around his plate.

With the mood he was in, and my own apprehension about having to be so strict right from the start, the pancakes didn’t taste very good. They maybe wouldn’t have anyway. He didn’t use the same brand I did. 

Regardless, I forced myself to eat three quarters of what I’d put on my plate. I couldn’t very well tell him that he had to eat breakfast and then refuse to do it myself. Once I’d choked down what I considered a reasonable amount, I stood up, quickly cleaning up his kitchen. 

Danny sat at the table, still not eating. The pancakes were not going to improve with age, but I didn’t say that. When the kitchen was clean, I started out of the kitchen, planning to read for a while until Danny was ready to obey me. 

What I really wanted was to go and get a cup of coffee and a newspaper, but I didn’t trust Danny to leave him here alone. With the way he was testing, I figured I would barely be out the door before he would be doing what he wanted. Which would probably involve drinking a Coke and getting rid of his breakfast. Frankly, right now, I wouldn’t leave him alone so that I could take a shower and brush my teeth. 

I would have to settle for some reading in the living room. Although I couldn’t see the table from the couch, I could hear everything in there. He wouldn’t be able to move from his seat without me hearing it. 

Danny’s POV

He left me! He left me in the kitchen! By myself! And he just went to go and do something else, which was completely unfair.

“Daddddyyyy,” I whined, upset.

“Yes?” he asked, not sounding like he was getting up.

“Come back,” I begged. “I don’t want to eat breakfast by myself.”

I didn’t. The pancakes were only going to taste even more disgusting without company. I wanted him to be in here. Alternately, I wanted him to go and take a shower so I’d have a chance to dump my breakfast down the drain. 

“Daniel,” he sighed again, and I made a face at my breakfast. I didn’t see why he had to sigh every time he said my name like that. Like I was being frustrating on purpose. 

“I don’t want to be by myself,” I insisted; I felt like crying.

That made him move, and I listened as he stood up and walked into the kitchen, where he leaned in the doorway and looked at me. He was looking pretty mad.

“Daniel,” he said, using that exaggeratedly patient voice, “I sat with you. You didn’t eat.”

Looking down at the table, I pulled my feet up onto the chair. That was true, but I hadn’t known he’d leave me by myself. That wasn’t fair. He hadn’t said eating by myself was a punishment, and I told him so.

Tyler’s POV   
  
Danny sounded so pathetic as he enumerated the issues he had with being left alone to eat breakfast. It was apparently not fair. He hadn’t known he’d have to eat by himself if he didn’t eat. He didn’t like it. Eating by himself made the food taste even worse.

Holding up my hand, I stopped him before he whined any more. Not moving from my position, I told him, “I will sit with you for the next ten minutes, but you will eat during that time. I will not argue with you about this. If you don’t listen and eat, then you will sit here until you do, and I will be in the living room. And so we’re clear, from now on, this is what you can expect if you don’t mind me about eating.”

“You said time out if I didn’t eat,” he pointed out.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Time out. By yourself.”

“This isn’t time out,” he disagreed. “This is sitting at a table.”

“It’s still time out,” I argued.

He made a face, “I thought you meant in a corner.”

Gritting my teeth, I sat down and asked, “Danny, can you explain to me what the difference is to you, between sitting at the table by yourself or standing in the corner?”

“One is standing and the other is sitting,” he replied, with a shrug.

“Daniel,” I said severely, thoroughly annoyed at this point by his attitude, “if you have a problem with it, then you need to explain why.”

Looking at me, his lip quivered for a moment before he quickly looked down, and I watched as his shoulders began to shake. He covered up his face, not saying anything as he tried to quietly cry.

“Oh, Danny,” I murmured, horrified. He’d been being bratty since we woke up, but maybe I was being too hard on him? This was all so new, and he was pushing, and I’d made him cry.

Considering everything that had happened this morning, I really just felt like I couldn’t keep doing this, and I told him so.

“Red, Danny,” I said, trying to keep my voice even. “We need to talk.”

Daniel’s POV

Hearing him safe word made me stop crying. More because I was surprised than anything else, since hearing him say red also made me feel like my stomach was somewhere around my toes. Suddenly, I wanted very much to throw up.

And I did not want to be in front of him while I did that. It was humiliating enough that I’d made him so mad that he had to safe word; I couldn’t let him see me like this, disgusting and drippy and smelling terrible.

I barely made it to the bathroom in time, my race not made easier by Shakespeare winding himself around my feet as I tried to run. Pulling the door shut behind me, I threw myself down on the floor and just got the lid of the toilet up before puking.

It was a surprising amount, since I hadn’t really eaten anything in twelve hours. I threw up until I felt like I’d puked up my stomach, and then I rested my forearms on the toilet, leaning my head against them. That was gross.

“Danny,” Tyler’s voice called through the door, as he tapped lightly. “Can I come in?”

“No,” I told him, shaking my head even though he couldn’t see me.

“Honey….”

Tyler trailed off, and I started to try to clean myself up. My nose was stuffed, and my mouth tasted absolutely disgusting. When I looked in the mirror, there were red spots around my eyes. I really didn’t want him to see me like this.

Taking my time, I washed my face and brushed my teeth. I tried to finger comb my hair into some semblance of order, but I needed a shower. Finally, satisfied that I’d done what I could, I opened the door, half hoping that he would have just left.

Tyler’s POV

When Danny came out of the bathroom, he stumbled over my legs stretched across the hallway, just catching himself in time.

“Ooph,” he said, surprised. “What’re you doing here?”

“Waiting for you,” I told him, concerned.

“You can go,” he replied, sounding surly.

I had safe worded, but he hadn’t, and I wasn’t leaving here unless he did as well. I still wasn’t sure what had happened this morning, but we needed to work it out.

Danny was trying for a spanking, that much I was sure of. I didn’t know whether he knew that as well, or if it was subconscious. And I had no idea if I was being too hard on him. The morning had been a power struggle though, and I really hadn’t enjoyed it.

Following him as he walked to the kitchen, I said, “I’d rather not, Danny. We need to talk about what’s going on.”

“I don’t want to,” he informed me. 

“Okay,” I said slowly. “I get that. You don’t like talking about stuff like this, and I understand. But if we’re going to make things work between us, then we have to communicate, and I feel like this morning has been not great for either of us. So we need to figure out why.”

“You’re too bossy,” he replied, not looking at me. He filled up a glass with water, drinking it slowly before continuing, “You kept telling me what to do. I didn’t want to get up, and I didn’t want to eat, and why do you have to be so damn bossy?”

I nodded, trying to listen to what he was saying and not get defensive as I explained, “I feel like being bossy is kind of part of being your daddy, sunshine. I’m supposed to make sure you do things that are good for you. And when we talked yesterday, you agreed that I had say over what you were doing.”

He didn’t respond to that, and sat down at the table, asking, “Will you please sit down and talk to me?”

The little boy looked like that was pretty much the least thing he wanted to do right now, but he listened, sitting across from and fiddling with his glass of water.

I waited for a moment, but when he didn’t say anything, I started again, “Can you tell me what I was doing that felt wrong this morning? I don’t want to make you unhappy, sweetheart. I really don’t. But I thought we agreed that this stuff was okay. I’m confused about what I’m doing that isn’t right.”

Danny’s POV

He wasn’t the only one. I didn’t understand why everything felt wrong. It just did. He wasn’t acting the way daddies in books acted, at least, not all of it. The pulling me out of bed and saying I had to eat thing was daddy-like. But when I told him he couldn’t feed me, then he stopped doing that. 

I didn’t know what he wanted me to do! I knew that Tyler liked spanking, and I’d been trying to get him to spank me. Not a lot. I’d been hoping for just a little spanking, since he liked doing that, except no matter what I did, he just kept giving me time out. 

And I HATED time out. It was terrible. It was the worst, most awful, most boring, thing on EARTH, and I did not ever want time out again. Ever.

Tyler interrupted my thoughts, saying, “Danny, come on, honey. What am I doing that is making things hard?”

“I don’t know,” I told him, desperately. “I really don’t.”

“I don’t believe that,” he shook his head at me. “I don’t. Do you understand me? I think you have at least some idea of what you feel like is wrong, so you need to spit it out.”

Shrugging, I shook my head, and Tyler leaned back in his chair, saying, “Then I think it’s going to be a long morning, sunshine. Because I won’t feel comfortable doing anything else until we discuss this.”

“That isn’t fair!”

“It isn’t fair for you to expect me to just magically know what you need,” Tyler replied, sounding so damn calm.

“Why not?” I asked him, pushing my chair back from the table so hard as I stood up that the chair fell backward. “You’re the daddy. You’re supposed to know.”

“I’m the daddy,” Tyler agreed, “but I’m not a mindreader, Daniel. I want to take care of you. I want to make you happy and spoil you and love you and do all of that stuff, but obviously, I am doing something wrong, and I can’t fix it if you don’t talk.”

Tyler’s POV

I was begging him. Literally. I really didn’t know what to do, and I was not comfortable with it.

It wasn’t that I couldn’t deal with uncertainty. I could, although I disliked it plenty. With Danny though, since we finished talking, I felt like everything I did was wrong, and I needed him to help me understand where the disconnect was.

“Why can’t you just be a daddy?” Danny asked me, tired and sad. “I don’t understand why that’s so hard.”

Nodding, I kept my voice low, saying, “What I don’t understand is what that means to you, honey. Because I feel like I’m doing what we discussed, but it’s clearly making you unhappy, so I need something concrete from you about what you want. Please.”

“Just be a daddy!” Danny insisted, stomping his foot.

I didn’t take the bait, ignoring the tantrum and telling him, “I need to know what that means to you, kiddo. Because I’m being a daddy the way we agreed, and if it isn’t right, then you gotta tell me.”

“Just be a daddy,” Danny repeated. “Like a daddy.”

Clearly, we weren’t getting anywhere, and I nodded, standing up and going to grab the notebook we’d used to write rules and consequences. Bringing it back with a couple of pens, I set everything down on the table.

“Alright,” I announced, sitting down. “We’re both making a list. You and me. You write down what a daddy does, and I’ll write down what a daddy does, and then we’ll compare.”

He shook his head, “I don’t want to.”

“We have to talk,” I explained. “We can do it on paper or we can just chat, but it’s got to happen, Danny. This is non-negotiable.”

Pouting, the little boy sat across from me, and I ripped a page of paper from the notebook, trying to hand it over.

He shook his head, pushing it back, “I want the notebook.”

I nodded, taking back the paper and handing him the notebook without comment. Then, I started on my list.

Danny’s POV

Glaring, I sat back, nudging the notebook away from me. I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t understand why everything had to be so difficult.

Being a daddy was easy. Tyler was supposed to do things like feed me and cuddle me. And when I didn’t want to get up in the morning, then he should tickle me and hug me until I was ready. 

And yes, although I wasn’t exactly looking forward to spankings, he wasn’t supposed to just put me in time out whenever he was frustrated with me instead of dealing with the problem.

“You look like you’re thinking pretty hard,” Tyler told me.

I shrugged, not wanting to talk to him right now, but he wouldn’t let it go, reaching for my hand and squeezing it.

“Look,” he told me, voice gentle, “I’m not comfortable doing this unless you talk to me, sunshine. I don’t want to hurt your or upset you or make you scared. I want you to feel safe with me.”

“I do,” I said, voice cracking. 

“Then what am I doing wrong, Danny?” Tyler asked me.

Pulling my hand away from him, I crossed my arms over my chest and pulled my feet onto the chair, wrapping my arms around my knees.

“You’re supposed to be a daddy,” I tried to explain to him again.

“Okay,” he said slowly. “What would a daddy do right now then, Danny?”

“You know,” I told him. “You’re supposed to cuddle me and say everything is okay. Why can’t you just do that?”

Tyler nodded at that, standing up and holding out his hand, waiting until I took it. Then, he pulled me to my feet and walked out to my big chair where I read, settling himself in and drawing me onto his lap. 

Snuggling me close, he said, “Alright, then we start here. Everything is going to be okay, Danny. I promise. This is a little bump, and we’ll take care of it.”

Tyler’s POV

Like they were magic words, as soon as I assured him that everything was going to be taken care of, Danny just relaxed against me. I let myself enjoy the sensation for a few minutes before I started trying to do what I promised.

“What would a daddy do in the morning,” I asked, “with a little boy who didn’t want to wake up?”

Danny’s thumb was in his mouth, and he didn’t say anything for a long moment before mumbling, “Daddies are supposed to tickle and cuddle until their little boys are ready to get up.”

I nodded, “Okay,” I agreed. “We can do that, honey.”

“Good,” he replied, sounding remarkably dignified around his thumb.

“And what should daddies do when their little boys don’t want to eat their breakfasts?”

He sighed, sounding exasperated now as he explained, “Then daddies feed them.”

“Okay,” I said. “So when you told me not to feed you?”

“Little boys are supposed to say that,” he informed me. “But little boys don’t make the rules. Daddies do.”

I nodded, taking it all in and trying to formulate a response to that. I understood what he was asking me for now, but it was still very difficult for me to feel like I was doing alright if he wasn’t clear with me.

“Can we make a deal, Danny?” I asked him.

He sat up a little bit, shaking his head sternly as he explained, “Daddies never make deals.”

Well, that wasn’t going to work, and I apologized before lapsing into silence as I thought again for several minutes.

Danny didn’t force me to come up with anything new though. After I didn’t offer something, he suggested, “Daddies make ‘greements.”

I wasn’t quite sure what differentiated a deal from an agreement, but if it made him happy, I didn’t really care about the semantics of it all.

“So we can make an agreement?”

He nodded, and so I said, “From now on, if you think I’m not doing what daddies do, then you say yellow and let me know what daddies do, and I will try to do that. Fair?”

“Okay,” he agreed.

“Good,” I murmured, kissing his cheek. “So can we go and finish breakfast?”

Danny made a face, “I really don’t like those pancakes.”

“Honey, you’re the one who bought them,” I pointed out, genuinely confused as to why this was starting up again already. I made him stand up so I could make eye contact as I waited for a response.

Danny’s POV

“Yeah,” I agreed with him. “Except the reason that almost the whole box is in the cupboard is because I didn’t like it. They don’t taste right.”

Tyler made a face at that, and he looked like he was frustrated again, but he finally said, “What is something that you would eat then, sunshine?”

“Just cereal?” I suggested. I had Lucky Charms in my cupboard.

“You know this stuff is garbage,” he told me, even as he stood up and took my hand to lead me to the kitchen. “It’s terrible.”

I shook my head, “It’s delicious. And, it’s fortified.”

Tyler smiled, making me sit back down, although he whisked the plate away and cleared papers from the table, and pointing at the juice, “You can drink that then, Master Daniel. Unless there’s a problem with the juice?”

There wasn’t. I didn’t particularly like orange juice, but I could drink it if it meant that I wouldn’t have to have a conversation about why I had juice I didn’t like. 

So I sipped, watching as Tyler pulled down a bowl and the box of cereal, lecturing me and pouring at the same time, “I am not going to make two breakfasts all the time, little man. This is a one time deal. From now on, you tell Daddy if there’s a problem with what I’m making before it’s made, thank you.”

“Yes, sir,” I agreed, continuing to drink the juice. 

“And this stuff is terrible for you,” he continued, adding some milk before putting it in front of me. “Food that’s actually good for you doesn’t have to be fortified.”

“It’s got marshmallows,” I replied, taking a big spoonful. I spoke around the cereal, “Marshmallows are full of essential vit’mins and min’rals for little boys.”

“Really?” Tyler grinned, sitting across from me. “Well, I think cereal like this is supposed to be a treat, like dessert or a snack, not a meal. If you want cereal, then cheerios with blueberries or a banana would be much better for you.”

“Yuck,” I shook my head, adding, “‘sides, I normally don’t eat breakfast.”

Tyler raised an eyebrow, informing me, “Well, that’s a thing of the past, sunshine. Three meals a day. Daddy’s orders.”

“Well, I don’t like that,” I said. 

“Well,” he parroted back, “Daddy doesn’t like you skipping meals, Danny. And who is the boss?”

Tyler’s POV

Danny pouted, eating a spoonful of cereal before he said, “You.”

“That’s exactly right,” I agreed, tweaking his nose. “So keep that in mind, little boy.”

“Don’t like it,” he grumbled, darting his eyes up to meet mine before they refocused on his cereal.

Rather than immediately checking in to see if he meant that, I replied, “Fibber. Finish up your breakfast so that we can do something else. What would you like to do today?”

Danny looked disappointed that I hadn’t taken the bait, and he stirred his cereal a bit before saying, “I don’t know.”

“No?” I asked, suggesting, “Maybe we should clean. I bet your closets haven’t been cleaned out in ages.”

“Nooooo,” he shook his head, trying not smile. 

“How about running errands?” I teased.

Apparently, Danny didn’t take that as a joke, stirring at his cereal and taking a bite before he asked, “What errands do you have?”

He went back to stirring at his cereal as he waited for a response, and I reached my hand across the table, holding his hand and admonishing, “Don’t play with it, Danny. Eat it. That is going to taste very gross if it gets soggy.”

“I like it soggy,” he informed me.

“Fine,” I shrugged, “but you’re eating that entire bowl of cereal. So I hope you’re not fibbing.”

“I’m not.”

I nodded, and he asked me again, “What errands?”

“Well,” I considered that for a moment. “I need to go to the grocery store, and I think that you could use some food too. And it looks like Shakespeare’s running low. Where do you get his food?”   
  
“Target,” Danny informed me. “Usually. Sometimes, Petco. It depends on what he needs.”

“Does he need food?” I asked.

Danny nodded, taking another bite and replying, “Yu huh, except he needs more nip too, and I want to get him some toys.”

“So Petco?”

“And Target,” Danny said. “Because litter is cheapest there. Can we get lunch out if we go and do errands?”

I hadn’t really intended on this being our day, but if that’s what Danny wanted to do, I certainly didn’t mind forgoing the grocery store on a Monday night.

“Can you behave yourself for Daddy?” I asked him.

Danny nodded, saying, “Caffeine would make good behavior better, Daddy.”

“No Coke first thing in the morning,” I told him. “That’s not going to be a negotiable rule. That stuff will eat a hole in your stomach lining, and you don’t need it before noon.”

“But at lunch?” he asked, looking interested.

“That’s fine,” I agreed. “You said the dentist said to cut back, but as long as he didn’t say stop entirely?”

“He didn’t,” Danny assured me. “Promise.”

“Alright,” I said. “Then we’ll go to Target, the pet store, lunch, and groceries. And you promise that you’ll be on your best behavior even after we eat, right, Daniel?”

“I will,” he said.

I wasn’t so sure about that. The way he’d been acting, I was guessing that there would be more testing today. We couldn’t avoid going out in public forever though, and so I would have to just try and see how things went.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny keeps pushing for that spanking.

Danny’s POV

I really did like my cereal soggy, and I liked errands, so I wasn’t going to misbehave. Probably. Tyler sat with me all the way through breakfast, until I was all done, and then we cleaned up before taking a shower together. 

It took Tyler a really long time to get ready. A surprisingly long time. It was just a weekend, and so I was ready in about 15 minutes, but then I had to sit around and wait for forever. 

Sprawled across the couch on my stomach, I dangled a hand for Shakespeare, wiggling my fingers and waiting for the pounce.

“Are you almost ready?” I called.

“In a minute,” he replied, stepping out of the bathroom. “How about you make the bed while you’re waiting? It needs to be done anyway.”

“I never make the bed,” I informed him.

Tyler nodded, saying, “Well, I never sleep in sheets that are full of cat fur and kitty litter, so I think that making the bed needs to be a habit we get into, Danny.”

“Why?” I asked, sitting up. “It just gets messed up again.”   
  
Retreating back into the bathroom, Tyler called, “The sooner it gets done, the sooner we can go. I’m not saying that you always have to do it, but given that you’re the one who is ready, and you’re anxious to go…”

“But why?” I asked following him into the bathroom.

Tyler cocked his head, watching me for a moment before saying, “I already explained why I’d prefer the bed get made. Now please go and do it.”

Needing to test just a little bit more, I slumped my shoulders, saying, “But I don’t want to.”

“And I don’t want to start out our day with a spanking,” Tyler informed me before taking me by the upper arm and turning me enough to land a swat. “But I will. So unless your little bottom wants more of this,” he smacked again, “I would go and do what I asked, please, Daniel Christian.”

“Don’t want to,” I grumbled, pulling away and rubbing at the swatted spots. “That hurt.”

Tyler smiled pleasantly, asking, “Do you want to test it out without your pants? Because I would be happy to give you a demonstration.”

Tyler’s POV

  
With that final threat, Danny finally grumbled his way off to the bedroom, and a moment later, I heard sheets rustling. Returning to my morning routine, I hurriedly finished up, hoping that a change of scenery would help delay the coming spanking.

The bed was barely made when I went to collect Danny, who had flopped onto the hastily drawn up sheets, but the down comforter was haphazardly spread across everything, and so I knew that the sheets would be cleanish when we went to bed later. 

Holding out my hand, I didn’t bother to comment on the clearly half-assed job, insteading praising him for listening, “Thank you for making the bed like I asked.”

Looking surly, Danny took my hand and let himself be hauled to his feet, complaining, “I didn’t want to.”

“Really?” I joked. “That was totally unclear to me. You did it with such good grace.”

He continued to grumble, and instead of going out the front door, I lead him to the living room and sat down on the couch, pulling him down onto the coffee table so that I could look him in the eye.

“Daniel,” I said, very firmly, “this is your last warning. Do you understand? I don’t like your attitude right now. Please stop, or we will not be going out to run errands or get lunch. We’ll be staying right here, and I will spank your bottom before I put you in time out.”

Danny’s eyes had widened a bit at this, and he shook his head, “I want to go to lunch. I want to get pizza.”

“And if you behave, then we can do that,” I agreed. “Come on, Danny. Let’s have a nice day.”

Sighing, Danny nodded, and I stood up and took his hand again, walking us out to my car. I opened the door for him before buckling his seatbelt myself. He didn’t complain at all about that, just sitting quietly, and I celebrated internally as I climbed into my own seat and started the car. 

Danny’s POV

Pulling my feet up onto the seat, I wrapped my arms around my knees and rested my chin, staring out the windshield.

I tried to breathe and think, talking myself down. I wanted this. I liked that he buckled me in. I wanted him to be bossy. Kind of. Sort of. I’d asked for it. But I felt like there was some evil Danny mastermind, taking over my body and making me sass and do stuff.

Tyler was acting like a daddy mostly. It was confusing, and I sighed heavily, trying to be calm. I really did want to go and get pizza.

“Feet down, little man,” Tyler told me, reaching a hand over and patting my knee.

“I like feet up,” I replied. It wasn’t arguing. I actually did. It was more comfortable.

Tyler didn’t put his car in reverse, and I could practically hear him counting in his head before he responded, “Well, I like when little boys don’t go flying through the windshield because they’re not properly restrained. So feet on the floor. Now.”

“You just don’t want dirty feet on your seats,” I told him. “You aren’t going to get into an accident. I’ll take off my shoes.”

“You’ll put your feet on the floor, or we won’t go anywhere,” Tyler said sternly. “Now.”

Making a face, I did it. He was sounding pretty thoroughly fed up, and I didn’t want to test. He’d already said it was the last warning, and I wanted to go to lunch.

I could hold off on pushing more until after pizza, at least. That thought in mind, I spent the ride staring out the window, stomach feeling flippy and weird.

Tyler’s POV

Danny was quiet in the car, and I should have appreciated it more. Because the minute I parked and we got out, it was like I had an entirely different little boy with me.

He wasn’t being terrible. He wasn’t even being naughty enough for me to really do anything. Not really.

He was just...testing. He’d wandered. He’d whine. If I asked him to do something, he didn’t respond the first one. Or two. Or sometimes, three, times. And then he’d say he hadn’t heard me. I found that hard to believe, but he always sounded so genuinely confused.

It was just enough to be thoroughly irritating, but it wasn’t enough for me to feel like I could actually do anything, and so we got through the errands, and lunch, with him being annoyingly vague and just frustrating the hell out of me.

I knew what he was doing, and during lunch, I let it go. He wanted a spanking. I could deliver. We would do that when we got home, when he finally pushed enough, without me continuing to try to stir us on the right path for the day.

And then it would be done. He would be spanked, thoroughly, and he’d learn that I meant what I said. He’d realize that spankings were to be avoided. And then, hopefully, the sweet and adorable little boy that I’d met would return.

The swats hadn’t been enough to chase away the little brat who had taken his place. Maybe that wouldn’t work with him.

Swatting was helpful with some littles, but Charlotte had mentioned how very unhelpful it was with others. From what she said, although a swat normally got Lucy to focus and mind like a little angel (provided it happened at the right moment), but she’d also said that she’d seen Matt swat Emily on more than one occasion, and that it typically just pushed the little girl to more outrageous heights of misbehavior.

I was hopeful that I had the timing wrong today, or this was just the way Danny was going to act during the testing phase. A well timed swat was certainly easier to mete out than a full spanking.

There was time to learn that though. We could do the whole routine today, little boy between my knees as I unbuttoned pants and stripped them off. He could get the lecture and the discomfort, along with some time out, and then we’d start with a clean slate again.

Grocery shopping was less painful, with the thought of spanking him in mind. I wasn’t looking forward to it, not really, but at least now, I had a plan.

Danny’s POV

Tyler barely let me get through the door into my place before he took bags from my arms, saying, “Alright, little mister, you can go and stand in the corner while I put everything away, thank you.”

“Why?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. “What’d I do?”

“I bet if you think about that, you’ll figure it out,” Tyler replied. “Now. March. We’re going to be having a discussion just as soon as I’m done.”

Huffing, I stomped my way over to the kitchen corner. This was so unfair. He hadn’t even told me I was going to have a time out until we got here. And I was sick of talking. 

Keeping my arms crossed, I stood myself in time out, making sure that my feelings about the whole situation were clear in every fidgety sigh.

Tyler just ignored it, bringing in groceries and putting stuff away. Which took him forever. Apparently, you couldn’t put away unwashed produce, and he even cut up the celery and stuff before finally letting me out.

“Let’s have our discussion,” he said, standing behind me and holding out a hand.

“I don’t want to,” I informed him, turning around. “I’m sick of talking.”

He nodded, taking my hand even though I didn’t want him to and walking me to the living room. As we walked, he began to lecture.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized. “Apparently, I wasn’t clear. We’re going to be having a discussion, and you don’t need to worry about talking. This discussion is going to require very little speaking on your part.”

Sitting down, he pulled me to stand between his knees, beginning to work the button my jeans, and I jumped back, smacking his hands away.

“What’re you doing?”

Daddy sighed, grabbing both of my hands and pulling me back in front of him before making eye contact and saying, “I’m taking your pants and underwear down. You have made it abundantly clear that the only thing you want to have happen today is a spanking. So that’s what we’re going to do.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny finally gets what he thought he wanted.

Tyler’s POV

Shaking his head, Danny contradicted me, “I don’t want a spanking.”

The little boy looked so very upset, and I couldn’t help but gentle my voice even as I lectured, “I think that you do, little boy. And even if you don’t, you have absolutely, positively, without a doubt, earned one. You have been argumentative and naughty all day, and it stops now. So I’m going take down your pants and your underwear, and I’m going to put you over my knee, and I’m going to smack your little bottom. Is that understood?”

Chin trembling, Danny’s eyes filled with tears, and he shook his head. I nodded, saying, “I think you do, Daniel. What’s about to happen?”

“I don’t want a spanking,” he shook his head, sniffling. “I don’t. I’ll be good.”

“I’m sure you will,” I agreed, going back to unbuttoning his jeans, now confident that he did understand exactly what was about to happen. “This is going to be unpleasant, and I bet you’ll want to be my very good little boy after it’s all done. Regardless, this spanking is about to happen.”

He continued to shake his head, but he didn’t pull away as I pushed his jeans down to his knees, taking his underwear with them. He did tense, covering himself up, but I didn’t comment, simply drawing him over my knee and resting a hand on his butt.

“Why’re you getting this spanking?” I asked him. 

I was confident that he understood, but I still wanted to hear his explanation. Plus, I was of the opinion that little boys focused better on punishments when they were forced to participate in them, at least a little.

Danny didn’t disappoint, answering me softly, “I was naughty and crabby and bad all day, and I’m really sorry, Daddy.”

“I’m sure you are,” I agreed, bringing my hand down with a hard crack. “I’m sorry too. This isn’t the way I wanted to spend our day together.”

I punctuated each sentence with another firm smack, watching as my handprint bloomed brilliantly across his chubby little cheeks. He was fair to begin with, especially his backside, and he colored up quickly as I began the work of making him understand that his bad behavior wouldn’t be tolerated.

My lecture continued as I painted his skin to a bright and rosy shade of pink. I doubted that he understood much of what I was saying, with the noise that he was making, but it gave me something to use to measure the number of swats I was handing out.

“You do not sass Daddy,” I told him sternly, smacking. “You do what you’re told, without fussing.”

I smacked with each sentence, carefully outlining why he was in trouble, and Danny kicked and squalled. He yelled loudly, right from the start, and I was grateful when I thought back to the number of cars outside the building when we got there. We were lucky that it was a Sunday afternoon; nobody was home to hear him wailing like he was being murdered.

Interspersed with his cries were very sincere sounding apologies along with promises of immensely good behavior. I responded to both, wanting Danny to be clear as to what to expect.

“I know you’re sorry,” I kept repeating. “And I bet you’re really going to try to behave for Daddy from now on. And every time you think about misbehaving, I want you to remember this spanking because Daddy will be handing one out, like this, when you’re naughty, Daniel Christian.”

“I know,” he sobbed, kicking his feet spasmodically against the carpeted floor. “I know! I’m sorry. I won’t be naughty again, Daddy. I won’t! I promise!!!”

Normally, I would have kept going. A little boy who was so intractably naughty had to know exactly to expect. However, this was the first time, and I didn’t want him to be afraid of me, so I wound down the spanking with several more hard smacks before pulling Danny up and into my arms, where I hugged and cuddled him just as fiercely as I’d been disciplining him a moment before.

“I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry,” he stuttered, clutching me desperately. “I’m sorry, Daddy. Sorry.”

“I know,” I crooned. “I know. My good boy. I know you’re sorry. It’s okay. We’re all done. All forgiven, sweet boy.”

He continued to apologize and cry, and I held him tightly, letting him sob out his upset, until he was limp and quiet against me. We both needed the cuddles as much as he’d needed the spanking.

Danny’s POV

That spanking had HURT! I’d known it would be unpleasant, and I’d been kind of nervous, but I hadn’t expected it to be that painful. Not really. I’d mostly thought it would be embarrassing and uncomfortable.

I liked the cuddling part. Daddy just kept holding me and rubbing my back, and he was careful about not letting my bottom touch anything. It was a necessary precaution. I felt like it was on fire. It burned and ached, which didn’t seem fair at all.

Finally, after I’d spent a really long time crying, I pulled back and wiped at my face with one hand, my other hand reaching behind me to gingerly rub at my still bare butt.

“No no,” he told me, catching my hand and pulling it back to the front.

“But it hurts,” I whined, glaring at him.

Apparently, Daddy was not in the mood for more attitude, because his response to my complaints was to take his free hand and place it right where I hurt, giving me a squeeze that was definitely unpleasant.

Looking at me very sternly, he asked, “Would you like for me to make it hurt more, Daniel Christian?”

“Noooooo,” I shook my head, eyes filling back up with tears. Squirming wildly, I cried, “That hurts, Daddy. No more. Please.”

He didn’t move his hand from where it was, but he did stop squeezing, just leaving it as a warm and heavy presence while he lectured, “Then that’s enough of the crabbing at me, thank you, little man. And you can keep your hands off of this little bottom. If I hadn’t meant for it to hurt, then I wouldn’t have spanked you so hard.”

Shifting closer to him, I stuck my thumb in my mouth and mumbled, “It was too hard. That really hurt, Daddy.”

Instead of going back to cuddling me, like I’d hoped, Daddy patted my bottom altogether too firmly, warning, “And I said I don’t want any more complaining from you. If you don’t want a sore backside, then you need to mind me. And that’s the end of it, Daniel.”

Sniffling, I didn’t respond to that. Apparently, sympathy was reserved for little boys who didn’t complain, and I really just wanted to cuddle with Daddy and not get any more punishment. I didn’t like it.

  
Sucking my thumb, I rubbed at my eyes and listened to Daddy breathing and humming a little bit to me. He let me sit on his lap for a good long while before finally evicting me, making me stand up so he could ease my pants and underwear back up.

Tyler’s POV

Danny’s expression as I got him clothed again was pretty pathetic, and he squirmed and wordlessly whined until I got him decent.

That task accomplished, I led him into the bathroom, where I found a clean washcloth to wet with cool water to wash his face.

“What’re you doing?” he asked, sounding very little and tired.

“Cleaning you up,” I explained, wiping gently at his swollen eyes before I carefully cleaned tears from his cheeks. I held the washcloth to his nose, ordering, “Blow.”

Danny was reluctant, but he blew his nose without making me tell him a second time. After, he sagged wordlessly against me, still rubbing at his eyes.

“Don’t do that,” I admonished him gently. “You’re going to make them hurt, and they already look sore.”

“‘k,” he mumbled.

Steering him into the bedroom, I quietly laid out my plans for the rest of the day. It was 3:00 now, and he looked exhausted. There was no way that he would make it to 10:00 without falling asleep on me or becoming exceptionally crabby, and I had no intention of letting that happen.

“Alright, little man,” I told him, taking him to the bed and helping him to sit on the soft surface. 

Unsurprisingly, Danny jumped up immediately, but I simply reseated him, saying, “You can sit your little self down, thank you.”

“But my butt hurts,” he told me. 

Danny’s little voice was so very sincere, without a hint of whining, as though he simply wanted to explain why he didn’t want to sit, and so I didn’t bother to reprimand him.

“I know it hurts,” I replied. “Luckily, you’re sitting here though, and not at the kitchen table, writing me lines. Or on a chair, in the corner, thinking about your naughty behavior. Instead, I know a little boy who is going to get to take a nice nap, because somebody looks very tired. And when you get up, we’ll make some dinner, and then maybe we can play a bit before Daddy gives you a bath. And I think it’ll be early bed tonight, Danny boy. Because you look exhausted.”

“I told you I was tired earlier,” he pointed out, same serious and sincere tone as he allowed me to pull his shoes and socks off.

He had, and that was actually something of a concern to me. There was no way he’d been sleeping enough, if the way he was acting was any indicator. Nonetheless, he needed to rest for at least a bit, and I could address the issue of how much sleep a little boy needed tomorrow.

Pulling him to his feet, I unbuckled and unzipped his jeans so that I could take his pants off. Sleeping in jeans was uncomfortable, and there was no reason to do it, in my opinion.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, getting tearful.

“For what?” I asked, making eye contact.

The little boy fidgeted in front of me, saying, “For arguing about being sleepy? I don’t need another spanking, Daddy. You made your point good earlier.”

“No, baby,” I soothed, pulling him into a hug for a long minute. “I’m not spanking you. I’m trying to make you comfortable to take a snooze.”

“Oh,” he mumbled, leaning into me.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “You’re sleepy, little boy. Let’s get you into bed for a nap.”

He obligingly allowed me to tuck him into bed, Abul Abbas in his arms and his thumb in his mouth.

When I tried to step away, his hand shot out and he grabbed my wrist, “You too?” he pled, hopefully. 

I was actually tired myself, probably from the long day, and it took me no time to shuck my own jeans and shoes and crawl in beside him, grabbing my phone and setting an alarm for 45 minutes. We could both use a rest.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the missed update last week. Work is crazy, and I'm pretty useless by the time I get home.

Tyler’s POV

After that first spanking, things settled down. We had problems, that was to be expected, but Danny seemed more relaxed. 

We fell into a rhythm. Danny still tested, but I started to feel more comfortable responding. I handed out a fair number of swats, but those, coupled with time outs, writing, and removal of privileges seemed to handle things nicely.

Although we continued to look at houses, we lived apart. Kind of. More nights than not, we were at his place. It was smaller than mine, but he didn’t like to leave Shakespeare alone at night. 

I liked the time together. I liked cooking with him, and giving him baths. Being with him made me see more of who he was. 

That wasn’t all good. Mostly, Danny was sweet and affectionate, but he was a terrible little boy when he didn’t eat regularly. It took me a while to figure it out, but after several evenings where Danny was parked in time out from the moment he got home until we sat down for dinner, I started to figure it out.

“What did you eat for lunch today?” I asked him, watching the little boy ravenously gobble up the casserole I’d made. It was good, but it wasn’t as amazing as people would assume, watching him eat it.

He took a gulp of cranberry juice to rinse down the last bite before answering, “Vending machine. I was in the middle of a project.”

Something clicked. He’d perked up tonight the minute he had started to drink the juice. The day before, he’d calmed down after sneaking some shredded cheese while waiting for me at the table. And on Monday, I’d come home to him snacking. There hadn’t been time out that night.

“What did you eat exactly?” I asked him.

He shrugged, chewing rapidly, “A Snickers bar. And some Cheetos.”

“With?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“It was just one Coke,” he defended himself, shoving another forkful of noodles and tuna into his mouth before saying, “promise, Daddy.”

“Alright,” I agreed. “And what about yesterday, sweet boy?”

“I only had one,” he swore fervently, around a mouthful of dinner.

“Slow down,” I warned. “You’re going to choke. I wasn’t asking about the Coke, baby. We agreed that one a day was fine. What did you eat for lunch?”

“Yesterday was Tuesday,” he said slowly, mouth twisting as he thought for a moment. “I think I skipped. I was real busy though, Daddy. It wasn’t on purpose.”

Giving him a look, I reminded, “It’s supposed to be three meals a day, Danny boy. You know that. Skipping lunch isn’t good for you.”

“I forgot,” he explained. 

“How do you forget to eat?” I asked him, skeptical.

The little boy shrugged, explaining, “I got busy, and then it was time to go home, and I never ate nothing. It was an acc’dent.”

Considering that, I watching him eating his dinner for a moment before I pronounced judgment. It was an accident, and I could understand that getting into the habit of eating regularly might be difficult.

“Well, little man,” I said, “if remembering to eat is going to be difficult for you, or you’re going to eat vending machine garbage, which is not a lunch, Daniel, then I’m going to make things easier.”

“How?” he asked, looking nervous.

“I’ll be packing your lunch,” I explained. “That way, you’ll eat. And we’ll put an alarm on your phone to remind you to stop for lunch.”

He sat up a bit, smiling, “So I’m not in trouble?”

“No,” I shook my head. “It was an accident. You’re going to eat now, right?”

He nodded emphatically, “Yes, sir. Promise.”

“Then you’re not in trouble,” I replied.

He grinned widely at that, asking, “What’re we going to do after dinner then?”

“I’m going to be packing some lunches,” I replied, standing up and grabbing my plate. “Why?”

“Can we watch a movie?” he asked, hunching over his own dinner possessively.

“I’m not taking that, goof,” I told him, ruffling his hair. “Go ahead and eat. Slowly. Chew so you don’t choke. And yeah, if you want.”

“Can we make popcorn?” he asked, eating as I cleaned up.

“If you’d like,” I agreed. “You did a good job with dinner.”

“Thank you,” he preened, focused on his meal for a few more bites. 

I cleaned up quietly, listening to Danny serve himself a third helping of casserole and a second helping of the broccoli with cheese sauce.

“This is good, Daddy,” he told me, eating the vegetables. “I like ‘em this way.”

“Good,” I replied, happy that I’d found a vegetable he’d eat without acting like I was torturing him.

Humming a little, he asked, “Can I stay up late if we watch a movie?”

Snorting at his nonchalant tone, I replied, “I don’t think so, little man. But that was a good try. Finish up, and you can pick out the movie.”

Danny let out a disgruntled little sigh, but he didn’t argue with me, refocusing on his meal and finishing everything on his plate before he handed it off to me and dashed off to pick out a film.

The kitchen clean, I quickly divvied up leftovers and packed them away in bags for both of us for the next day at work. Throwing in cookies and an apple, I stored everything in the refrigerator before going to join him, pleased that the problem had been resolved so easily.

Danny’s POV

I sprawled myself out on the couch, waiting for Daddy to join me in the living room, my hand dancing along the floor for Shakespeare to chase. He was too lazy, choosing to jump up on the couch and press himself against my hip, purring contentedly.

“What’d we pick?”

Looking up at him, I said, “Up. Could you get me Abul Abbas?”

“Your legs don’t work, lazybones?” Daddy asked.

He didn’t sit down, so I figured that I still had a chance of him going. Batting my eyes, I explained, “Shakespeare is comfortable, Daddy. I’m being considerate. Please? Abul Abbas loves popcorn.”

“And Up,” Daddy commented, pressing a rough kiss to my temple before leaving me in the living room by myself. “Set the alarm on your phone, please.”

My phone was not easily reached from my position, and after a moment of fruitlessly waving my arm toward it, I gave up, resolving to do it later.

When Daddy returned, he handed over the elephant before retrieving the bowl of popcorn from the kitchen and sitting by my head. Pulling me up so my head rested in his lap, Daddy played with my hair while we watched the opening credits.

“Did you set the alarm?” he asked me.

Involved in the movie, I nodded, not thinking much of it. I’d do it as soon as I could reach my phone easily, and that was as good as it being done.

The next day, Tyler had to leave for work before me. That wasn’t uncommon. He liked to get into his office early to take care of emails and paperwork before phone calls started. 

I liked to get a slow start, lying in bed for twenty minutes or so before I bothered to shower and go through my short routine to to get ready for work.

Unlike Tyler, my office was informal, a marvelous land of blue jeans, ironic tee-shirts, and converse sneakers, so long as I didn’t have any client meetings. Even those just meant I had to make sure that nothing had holes and the shirt wasn’t offensive. It was a perk of working for a small company run by people not much older than I was.

After I got dressed, I normally ate something. At least, I ate something now that Daddy was here, and a can of Coke was no longer an acceptable breakfast. Tyler was pretty easy-going about breakfast, and we always had bananas that I could smear with peanut butter or something similarly easy and portable.

The problem that first morning was that I took too long relaxing in bed. I got engrossed in an article I was reading on my phone, and when I checked the clock, I only had 7 minutes to get ready and get out the door.

It was doable, but it was tight, and in order to make it to the office somewhere in the vicinity of my normal start time, I had to forgo breakfast. Which meant that I didn’t even enter the kitchen. Tyler had taken to feeding Shakespeare when he got up, so the cat wouldn’t follow him around meowing, and so there was nothing to remind me to stop.

People sometimes grabbed doughnuts on the way to the office, and I figured that person could be me this morning. It would give me an excuse for being late, and a doughnut was breakfast, even if it was something that I figured that Daddy would only agree to as an occasional solution.

The doughtnuts went over well, and I ended up eating several. I was hungry. When lunch time rolled around, I worked right through it, and I didn’t even notice I was hungry again until 3:00. By then, it was so late that there didn’t seem to be any point to eating.

I got home at 5:30, starving, and I headed to the kitchen because I wanted to find a snack. Instead, I found my daddy, sitting at the kitchen table, looking less than impressed.

“Forget your lunch?” he asked, nudging at some tupperware containers.

“I forgot it,” I told him, trying to maneuver toward the fridge and grab some food. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Except you skipped lunch again,” he reminded. “I thought we agreed that you wouldn’t do that.”

I don’t know why I did it. I really don’t. He just looked irritated about me skipping lunch, and I didn’t want it to be a whole thing when it was really an accident, and so I said, “No, I ate.”

“You did?” 

Tyler’s whole face changed as he smiled at me, and he looked so relieved, and so I went with it, nodding, “Yup. I had a cheeseburger and fries. And my coke. I’m really hungry though, Daddy. What’s for dinner?”

Daddy stood up, grabbing me for a quick hug as he started talking about meatloaf being in the oven, and I snuggled against him. I would remember my lunch tomorrow, and then it wouldn’t be a big deal. He never had to know.

Tyler’s POV   
  
Danny acted nervous all evening, jumping every time he was startled. He ate dinner like he was starving again, and I thought I knew why.

“Doughnuts aren’t the most nutritious breakfast,” I lectured him, as I dished up more carrots and meatloaf.

“I don’t like the carrots,” he told me, trying to push them away.

I nodded, “If you’re hungry, you can eat some. You need the vitamins. Especially since you ate garbage for breakfast.”

“Doughnuts are a breakfast food,” he argued, making a face at the orange vegetable. “I want more potatoes.”

“There are no more potatoes,” I informed him. “You ate them all. Eat your carrots and your meatloaf.”

He grumbled about it, but he ate everything. The carrots were fine, candied with ginger. He should have loved them. Regardless, he needed to eat something more nutritious to make up for the cheeseburger and doughnuts.

After dinner, he was still testy, and I finally decided that he hadn’t gotten enough sleep, clicking off the television and saying, “I think it’s time for a warm bath and bed, you.”

“I’m not tired,” he disagreed.

“You will be,” I replied. “Let’s get you into the tub, and then I’ll make you some tea.”

“I don’t want tea.”

“You could have some warm milk if you’d prefer,” I offered. “Come on.”

He stayed seated on the couch, and I didn’t bother to argue further, grabbing his arm and hauling him to his feet before swatting him gently toward the bath.

“I don’t want a bath,” he complained, unhappy.

He was acting off, and I focused on getting through bath time as quickly as possible, anxious to get him into bed where he could sleep. I was going to be calling to make sure he got out of bed tomorrow morning, and hopefully that would lead to a better Friday. We were supposed to go and look at a house, and Charlotte was sure it was the one. 

Danny’s POV

Tyler was pushy, making me go to bed early, and he called the next morning to remind me to get out of bed and to take my lunch. I did. When lunch time rolled around, he even called me to remind me to eat it.

I just didn’t feel like it. I hadn’t liked the carrots the night before to begin with, and I didn’t want to eat them now. I didn’t want meatloaf either. Or a stupid apple. 

After I got off the phone with Daddy, I glared at the lunch. I could go to the lunchroom and nuke the meatloaf. I just didn’t want to. And so, I didn’t.

Instead, I worked, ducking out of the office half an hour early, since I didn’t take my lunch. Somehow, Tyler still beat me home, and that’s when the problems started.

“Where’s your tupperware?” he asked me, when I came into the kitchen.

“Hello to you too,” I said, standing in the doorway and watching him do dishes.

He turned, smiling apologetically and saying, “I’m sorry, baby. Hello. How was your day?”

“Okay,” I replied, adding, “What about you?”

“Good,” he said. “It was Friday.”

I nodded, watching as he turned back around to the sink and returned to the task at hand. After a moment, he asked, “But the tupperware, baby? I’m doing the dishes, and I’d like to wash those now too.”


	6. Chapter 6

Tyler’s POV

“Ummmmm,” Danny sounded unsure, “I left it at work?”

That made me forget the dishes for a minute, as I turned to really look at him and ask, “Danny? Why does that sound like you’re guessing what the right answer is supposed to be?”

“I don’t know,” Danny shrugged. 

“What’s the deal, sunshine?” I asked him.

“Nothing,” he told me quickly.

I frowned, as his hands crept behind him to cover his backside. Crossing my arms over my chest, I said, “Go get me the Tupperware, please, Daniel.”

I didn’t believe that he’d forgotten it. He sounded too damn tentative when he said that was the case, and so I knew there was some other problem.

His face darkened, and he absolutely did not look happy as he stomped back to the front door, returning with his backpack and then pulling the tupperware out. He slammed it onto the counter.

“Here,” he spat.

“And why are these still completely full?” I asked him, having a pretty good guess as to the answer.

I began to empty them, as I waited for a response, dumping the containers into the soapy water as soon as I threw the food out. 

No response was coming from him, and I sternly said, “I’m waiting for an answer, Daniel.”

“I don’t know,” he told me, the bluster gone. “I didn’t...I didn’t eat.”

Nodding, I held out a hand, taking Danny and leading him to the living room, where I sat on the couch and pulled him down onto the coffee table.

“Why?” I asked him patiently.

He shrugged, but I shook my head, “That’s not an answer. Why didn’t you eat lunch? Did you forget again?”

“I just didn’t feel like it,” he muttered.

“Is that acceptable?” I asked him evenly.

Danny’s POV

He was so damn calm, and it was so frustrating. I didn’t see what the big deal was. So I didn’t eat? Who cared.

“I didn’t feel like it,” I repeated. “I didn’t. It’s not a big deal.”

“It is,” he disagreed. “The rule is that you eat. And you eat because otherwise, you come home, and your blood sugar is out of wack, and you’re crabby and you’ve got a headache.”

“I didn’t yesterday,” I pointed out.

I didn’t even realize what I’d said until Daddy made eye contact, saying, “What was that?”

Biting on my lip, I didn’t say anything, but he wasn’t having it, saying, “You tell me what you just said, Daniel Christian.”

“I didn’t eat yesterday,” I told him, very softly. I wished I hadn’t said that.

“Okay,” he nodded. “Let me get this straight. You didn’t eat today. Because you didn’t feel like it. And you didn’t eat yesterday. Why was that?”

“I forgot,” I mumbled.

“You forgot,” he repeated. “And when you got home, what did you tell me?”

“I ate,” I said, practically only breathing the word.

“And that was?”

I didn’t say anything to that, but he answered his own question, loudly, “A lie.”

“It wasn’t,” I disagreed, shaking my head. He sounded like that was a really bad thing for me to have done, and I didn’t want to say that I had. It hadn’t been honest, but lies were really a big deal. They were bad.

“What was it then?” he asked, enunciating very slowly. 

“I don’t know,” I said. “But it wasn’t a lie, Daddy.”

Tyler’s POV

Danny sounded frantic as he told me that he hadn’t lied. If I hadn’t been so upset about it, I probably would have seen the humor involved in him trying to convince me that telling me he’d eaten lunch when he hadn’t was clearly lying.

“What did you tell me?” I asked him, deciding that I would walk him through until he admitted it.

“I had lunch,” he said quietly, looking at his feet.

I nodded, “What did you say you ate?”

He shrugged, “I don’t know. I think a cheeseburger?”

“Did you eat a cheeseburger?” I asked him.

He shook his head, and I said, “Alright, and did you think you had eaten a cheeseburger when I asked you?”

“No sir,” he admitted.

“So saying that you had,” I told him slowly, “would be what?”

“It wasn’t a lie,” he shook his head. “It wasn’t.”

“What would you call it then?” I asked him.

“I don’t know,” he said, continuing to shake his head. “But it wasn’t a lie, Daddy. Lies are really bad, and I don’t want to be in really bad trouble.”

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have lied to me,” I pointed out.

“I-” 

“You lied,” I interrupted him, saying it very firmly. “You told Daddy a lie, Daniel. And you’re right. Lies are really bad, and I’m not happy with your choice right now. I would like you to please…”

I stopped. I wasn’t sure what I wanted him to do. I knew I needed to address this, but he’d just gotten home, and he was probably hungry. He needed out of his work clothes. I hadn’t wanted to cook, but take out seemed like a treat.

Thinking, I finally asked, “Are you...do you need to go potty?”

He nodded, and I stood him up and swatted him a little toward the bathroom, “You go potty. Don’t forget to wash your hands. And then, I’d like you to change into your jammies. When you’re done with that, you come back out here.”

“But it’s early,” he protested, even as he moved away.

“It is,” I agreed. “But naughty little boys who tell lies have to go to bed early.”

He didn’t say anything else to that, disappearing quickly down the hallway and leaving me to my thoughts.

Early bed seemed fair to me. He would hate that. I really didn’t like lying though, especially when I’d tried to come up with an option to help him remember lunch that didn’t include any sort of punishment.

With a sigh, I accepted that early bed was not enough punishment. As much as I hated the idea, this was going to mean a spanking and some lines. Hopefully, Danny wouldn’t fight me too much, and I wouldn’t have to start tacking on additional penalties.

Danny’s POV

I didn’t want to argue with Daddy any more about this. He said that little boys who lied had early bedtime, and I was very very hopeful that he would consider that to be punishment enough. 

I had not enjoyed the only spanking he’d given me thus far, and the swats he handed out were unpleasant too. I really just wanted to get early bed and be done with it.

When I came out of the bedroom in my jammies though, Tyler hadn’t moved from the couch. He held out his hand, beckoning me over. I stayed just out of reach, and I somehow found myself shielding my bottom with both hands. 

“Come here, please,” Daddy told me.

“I don’t want to,” I shook my head, feeling my eyes fill with tears. “I didn’t mean to be bad.”

“You weren’t bad,” Daddy said. “I don’t like that you broke our rules about eating, and I especially don’t like that you lied about it. And we need to take care of it now, little boy.”

Shaking my head, I backed up two steps, mumbling, “Nu uh.”

Daddy kept that calm tone as he told me, “I’m going to count to three, Daniel Christian, and you need to be over here. If you’re not, then you are not going to like the consequences. Do you understand?”

“I don’t want a spanking,” I whimpered, squirming unhappily. 

“I understand that. That’s why it works.”

“Daddddyyyy,” I whined. “I’m sorry! I won’t do it again.”

“One,” he replied.

“No no no,” I shook my head. “I don’t need a spanking. I don’t!”

“Two, Daniel Christian,” Daddy said sternly. “Don’t make me say three.”

I couldn’t help it. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen if I didn’t go by three, but I just couldn’t walk myself over there to get spanked. It was too hard. Biting my lip, I started to cry, not looking forward to what was about to come.

Daddy sighed, standing up and starting toward me as he finished, “And that’s three, little man.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For some reason, the comment/response system from the inbox isn't working well. Sorry if you left comments here, and I swear I'll get to them when the glitch is fixed (believe me, I read each and every one).

Tyler’s POV

I’d let Danny get too upset. He was really crying by the time I made it to him, and I kicked myself for not just getting up and taking him to the couch.

“Let’s get this over with,” I told him, leading the unhappy little boy back to where I’d been sitting, one hand wrapped firmly around his upper arm. 

My little boy was still covering up his backside, as though that was going to somehow protect him, and it would have been adorable if things were different.

“Let’s get your jammy bottoms down,” I narrated, finally letting him go. It was the wrong choice.

Danny stumbled away from me, shaking his head, “No no no no no! No!”

“That’s a very defiant little boy I’m hearing,” I commented, grabbing his wrist before he could get out of reach. This time, I pinned him between my knees as I tugged down his pajamas. Upending him, I patted his exposed thighs. Even without pajamas, he was pretty well covered, his fingers spreading as widely as they could to protect himself from what was about to happen.

“Daniel,” I explained to him firmly, “you are getting a spanking for lying to me. Move your hands.”

“Uh uh,” he squirmed.

“Uh huh,” I disagreed. “Now, move your hands, or I’m just going to smack your thighs. Have you ever had anyone do that?”

He didn’t answer, and I explained, “Well, I’ve been told it hurts more than getting your bottom smacked. If that’s how you want to do it though, I’m not going to argue.”

Danny still didn’t move his hands, and I sighed, landing a hard swat to the back of one leg. I fell into an easy rhythm, unsurprised when Danny’s hands flew away after less than a dozen swats.

“I’ll move ‘em!” he cried. “I’ll move ‘em.”

“I see that,” I said, continuing to smack his pink thighs. “I kind of like the color I’m getting here though. Maybe I should just stick to your legs?”

“No!” he wailed. “No! Daddy! Ow! I’m sorry!”

“No?” I mused. “Would you rather I do something else?”

“Smack my bottom!” he insisted. 

I couldn’t argue with that, although I did hold back a chuckle as I moved my hand up and began to work on turning his bottom the same shade of pink. Once I had it matching his thighs, I kept going. Lying was pretty bad, and I intended to only have to have this discussion once.

It wasn’t hard to make him regret his decisions. Danny wasn’t used to any sort of discipline, and this was only the second spanking. By the time my hand felt like it was buzzing, I’d painted his butt red, and he was sobbing like he’d never stop.

Rubbing the back of one of his legs, I murmured, “Alright, Daniel Christian. Spanking is all over.”

He continued to cry, and I waited, patting and rubbing, until he stood up and crawled into my lap, whimpering, “No more Daniel Christian.”

“I’d prefer to just call you my Danny too,” I said. “And if you behave, then it’ll be no more Daniel Christian.”

“Nooo,” he whined. “Now. Why’re you still calling me that? I got spanked.”

I nodded, “You did, but the punishment isn’t over yet.”

“Noooooooo,” he cried, shaking his head at me. “Not fair!”

“I think it’s very fair,” I disagreed. “Lying is a big naughty thing, Daniel Christian. And I don’t want to ever have this conversation again. Not ever. So, you’re going to write some lines for me, sitting on that hot little bottom, and we’ll see how that helps your memory.”

“No, Daddy,” he told me. “I’ll remember! I won’t ever lie again.”

“I’m going to help you with that,” I informed him, making him stand up.

He cried as I led him into the kitchen, wailing at being forced to sit down on one of his hard chairs. I ignored it, grabbing the binder and a pen, which I set in front of him. It was better to just get it over with.

Danny’s POV

I didn’t understand why I was still in trouble, even though I’d gotten punished, and I just wanted to lay my head down and cry. It wasn’t fair.

“Alright, Daniel,” Daddy told me, sitting down in the other chair and pulling the binder back to himself. He wrote something down before putting it in front of me again. “I want you to write that. 100 times. And I want good handwriting, please.”

“I don’t want to,” I told him, shaking my head and hiding my face in my hands.

“I understand that,” he told me, sounding a bit more sympathetic. “I don’t like that this is the way we’re spending our Friday night either. But I won’t have you lying to me. It’s not okay.”

“But I said sorry,” I whined, finally giving in to the impulse to rest my face in my arms, on the table. “That’s not fair. Sorry and a spanking and early bed is a lot, Daddy.”

“It is,” he agreed. “And lying calls for a lot of punishment because it’s very very naughty. It’s probably the most naughty thing you can do, Daniel Christian. I don’t like it.”

I didn’t really know what to say to that. I knew he was right. Lying was really bad. And Daddy thought it was lying, and I couldn’t give him any other word for what I’d done. Not really, and I had tried to think of one. I hated the idea of saying I’d been lying, but was there another word for it?

“Sit up,” he told me firmly. “Come on, Daniel. Look at what you need to write for me.”

I didn’t want to, but my butt hurt, and I’d already been pretty disobedient. Slowly, I peeked my head up to look at him, whining, “I don’t-”

“Want to,” he interrupted. “I am very well aware that this is not what you’d like to be doing. But I’m telling you that this is the punishment for lying. Hop to, little man, because I’m not going to change my mind, and you’re only making yourself sit longer.”

Tyler’s POV

Danny grumbled quite a bit, but he finally looked at the binder, reading the sentence I’d written across the top of the page.

It wasn’t anything fancy, just your standard, “I will not lie to Daddy,” but I’d never had to make him write lines yet. I wanted to avoid this particular lecture again, but I couldn’t bring myself to make him write something more than 100 times, especially after spanking him.

I also couldn’t leave him there though. Really, I should have been putting together dinner. He had to be hungry. I hadn’t planned on cooking, but I could throw together some grilled cheese and soup for us both.

Even knowing that, I found myself stuck in my seat, watching him. I wasn’t sure if he needed me to be close to him, or if it was something that I needed, but that didn’t seem particularly important at the moment.

At the moment, what seemed important, was that I would sit and watch, while he did this. There was plenty of squirming around and tears, but he worked. One hundred lines wasn’t that many, and he was done in half an hour.

After he completed the last line, Danny just stared at the paper, not pushing it over to me, until I put my hand over his, “All done?”

That got me a silent nod, and I tugged the paper away, making sure that he’d written everything legibly. It was messy, but I’d expected that. His handwriting was atrocious. I’d told him to write neatly, but I hadn’t really expected it. He hadn’t scribbled, and that was good enough for right now.

Pushing my chair back, I held out my arms and motioned, “Come here then, Danny.”

He hesitated for a moment before crawling into my lap and hiding his face against my neck, the tears that had slowed starting back up again.

“Okay,” I soothed, rubbing his back. “You’re alright.”

“I’m sorry,” he cried.

“I know you are,” I told him. “We’re all done, and you were such a good boy for me.”

“No, I wasn’t,” he argued.

“My good boy,” I praised. “You were.”

He shook his head, pulling back and disagreeing, “You had to count.”

“I did,” I agreed. “You were scared. I should have gotten you myself; it’s too much to expect you to just walk over to me when you’ve got a spanking coming. At least for now.”

“I don’t mean to be bad,” he mumbled, hiding himself again.

“You weren’t bad. You told a lie, and you got punished, and it’s over now.”

“Except early bed,” he reminded.

“Except early bed time tonight,” I conceded. “That’s my honest little boy, though. You didn’t have to remind me about early bed.”

“I will not lie to daddy,” he recited, tapping the papers. “Not telling? That’s lying, right?”

“Good boy,” I praised, kissing him. “That’s right.”

I spent our evening together petting and cuddling him. Danny stayed close as I made our sandwiches and soup, which he devoured. 

“You have to eat,” I told him, as I made a second grilled cheese for him. “I don’t want to have to punish you for it, Danny.”

“You did today,” he pointed out, sneaking a bite of my sandwich while he waited.

“No,” I told him, wanting to make sure that he was very clear on this. “I spanked you because you lied to Daddy. The not eating lunch thing...you broke the rules about that, and I expect you to try to remember and not disobey Daddy just to disobey Daddy, but the spanking and the lines were about the lying.”

“What about early bed?” he asked, adding, “Thank you,” when I gave him the sandwich.

“That’s…” I trailed off, not sure. I’d told him it was for lying, but really, that meant that I’d completely ignored the food issue. 

Deciding that the lying was the far bigger issue at the moment, I said, “Well, that’s lying too. I don’t like the disobedience though, Daniel, and I wouldn’t expect me to be so lenient again, if you disobey me.”

“I wasn’t,” he disagreed, eating. “I forgot.”

Raising an eyebrow, I took a bite of sandwich and watched him, waiting until he flushed, “Okay. It was maybe disobed’ent.”

“Yeah, I think so,” I told him. “Eat your sandwich.”

He made a big show of obeying me, finishing the second sandwich and helping me clean up from dinner.

That done, he tried to go watch TV, but I caught his arm and told him, “I think no TV tonight, Danny. Why don’t we play a game? Or maybe color?”

“Is no TV because I was bad?”

“Because you made a bad choice?” I asked, answering myself, “No, baby. It’s been a long week though, and I think we’ve watched a lot of TV, don’t you?”

“I guess,” he admitted. 

“Come on,” I encouraged, pulling him to the closet where we’d stashed toys and games. “Bed isn’t far away. Why don’t you show me how to play Gloom?”

Danny’s POV

Daddy was nice, after the spanking. He cuddled me a lot that night, running his hand through my hair or just patting me a lot, and he played Gloom for a long time. He even made us popcorn for a snack. It was pretty delicious; I loved when he made us popcorn.

Too soon though, it was time for bed, and he was standing up, pulling me to my feet and nodding, “Go potty and get ready for sleep, baby. I’m going to clean up here. If you’re in bed when I’m done, I think I could maybe read you a story or cuddle a bit, even with early bed.”

It was too early, but Tyler was using that voice that he used when he wasn’t even thinking that I might possibly consider arguing for a second. That was...it wasn’t a bad voice. If I had to be completely honest, it made my bones ache the way a good story online always made me feel. A mixture of wanting something so bad that it physically hurt as well as being nervous.

It wasn’t a good voice though, not really. It was the definite, absolute, you gotta, type voice, and that was hard sometimes.

I didn’t want early bed. He wasn’t going to listen to that though, so I slowly dragged myself to my feet and went to brush my teeth and wash my face. He was already in the bedroom by the time I got there.

“I’m working on it,” I told him, before he could say anything. “Not fair not giving me enough time to do something and then taking away bedtime stories, Daddy.”

“I wasn’t going to,” he replied. “I might take away bedtime stories for the sassy little mouth you’re using right now though. That’s not fair.”

Frankly, I wasn’t sure that things couldn’t be fair for daddies, when they were the ones who got to make all the rules, but now didn’t seem the best time to argue that point. When I started getting argumentative toward bedtime, Daddy made threats about no stories because I used up all my time.

“Sorry,” I apologized, not meaning it too much.

“Thank you,” he told me. “I know I said in bed, but I thought getting things cleaned up would take longer. Just get in now. Did you use the potty?”

“Yes,” I said, blushing. I didn’t like him asking that.

“Face and teeth?” 

I nodded in response before I crawled into bed, “Now I get my story?” I asked.

“You did what I asked, didn’t you?” He said, tapping my nose before grabbing the book from the nightstand.

  
We were reading Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, and it was killing me, that we could only read a little while each night. Daddy hadn’t said when early bed was exactly, but I figured it had to be soon, and I wanted to get as much of the story in as possible.

“Come ‘ere,” he motioned, pulling me into his side and opening the book to chapter 7.

I loved it when he read. I fell into the stories, fully involved in whatever was going on. I knew at least some of it had to do with him picking good books, but part of it was his voice. It was just relaxing to listen to. 

Too soon, he closed the book, only one chapter done, and I pouted, “Just a little more.”

“Early bed means early bed,” he replied, sliding out from under me and kissing my forehead firmly before he adjusted the blankets. “Not reading ‘til all hours of the night, baby. Now, close your eyes and get some sleep, please.”

“I-”

“Good night, Daniel,” he interrupted, raising an eyebrow. “For a little boy with a sore bottom, you are definitely feeling pretty brave about arguing with Daddy.”

That reminder made my bottom twinge a lot, and I snapped my mouth shut. I couldn’t help but make a face, even as I closed my eyes. It wasn’t fair. I wasn’t even tired.

“Good night,” he repeated, kissing me once more before leaving the room.

I didn’t like bedtime by myself. It was lonely in here. And dark. And boring. And the book was so close. Slowly, I inched myself across the bed to reach for it.


	8. Chapter 8

Tyler’s POV

That expression that I’d seen, I was more than a little familiar with. Not so much from Danny yet, but from time with other littles. And so I waited outside the bedroom. It only took a minute before I could hear him rustling around.

Predictable. Charlotte swore that most of the littles were. Not about everything. Their behavior could surprise you, as far as the schemes they cooked up, but most of the time, the misbehavior, you knew it was coming. Maybe not what was going to happen, but you knew that something was going to happen. 

“What’re you doing, little boy?” I asked him, not looking into the bedroom.

“Nothin’,” came the immediate reply.

“Then you better keep doing nothing,” I warned him, very sternly. “Unless you want early bedtime for the rest of the weekend.”

The only response to that was muffled grumbling, but he was quiet about it at least. I waited a few more minutes before going back to the living room, settling on the couch with my laptop. I wanted to look at the photos of the house that Charlotte had sent me anyway, and hopefully, by the time I was done, Daniel would be well asleep.

  
  
  


Danny’s POV

I woke up briefly, when Daddy slipped into bed beside me. It had been weird to fall asleep on my own, and a lot harder than I would have expected, since I had been sleeping by myself for so long before Tyler.

Once he was in bed though, I fell right back to sleep. I didn’t like to cuddle him while I was sleeping, but I liked having him there. 

The next morning, I woke up first, which was really no surprise. He’d made me go to bed way too early the night before. 

Getting up on my knees, I pushed at his shoulder, “Dadddyyy,” I sang. “Daddddyyyy.”

“Shhh, Danny boy,” he said, clumsily patting at me. “Daddy’s sleeping.”

“It’s morning time now,” I informed him. “Time to get up. And make french toast. And bacon. Please.”

He rolled onto his back and looked up at me, saying, “You aren’t going to let Daddy sleep anymore, are you?”

“It’s morning,” I repeated. “Please? Get up get up get up.”

“Okay,” he agreed, rolling back onto his side.

“Dad!Dy!”

“Okay,” he groaned. “Danny, how about just a few more minutes for Daddy? I’m exhausted. What time is it?”

Glancing at the clock, I said, “It’s 7:30.”

“You don’t even get up that early during the week,” he replied, giving me a look. “Go on, little boy. Either lay back down and rest, or you can go and watch cartoons. Daddy is going to sleep until at least 8:30.”

“No-”

“If you finish that sentence,” he interrupted, closing his eyes, “maybe you can write me some lines instead.”

Pouting, I rolled onto my side, hugging Abul Abbas. It wasn’t my fault that he had stayed up late without me, having all sorts of fun. He’d be ready to get up if he’d been forced to sleep so early.

Tyler’s POV

I felt bad shooing him off, but 7:30 was frankly ridiculous on a Saturday. Especially from Danny, who happily slept until 10:00 if I let him. We didn’t have anything to do until 11:00, and I was going to sleep just a little bit longer.

He was a good boy. He complained, but he left me to my sleep. When I woke up, it was to Danny staring intently at me, laying on his side.

“Now will you wake up?” he mumbled plaintively. He hugged Abul Abbas tightly to his chest as he asked me the question.

He looked so hopeful, and I felt more awake, and so I nodded, although I grabbed his hand and tugged him in for a kiss before standing up.

“Thank you,” I said, “for letting me sleep. That was very nice of you.”

He blushed , kissing me back, but then he pulled away, “Now can we have french toast?”

“Yes, slave driver,” I replied, groaning as I stood up and ambled into the kitchen.

Danny wouldn’t cook (other than a handful of very simple foods like quesadillas), but he was pretty cheerfully helpful in the kitchen, setting the table and getting me whatever I asked for as I made breakfast. 

The meal was spent with him curled up in my lap, a bit clingier than usual. After the bad punishment the night before, I wasn’t surprised.

He even climbed into the shower with me, standing closely and wanting me to wash his hair. It slowed us both down considerably, and by the time we were ready, after a leisurely breakfast and shower, it was time to go.

“So we’re going to look at a house,” Danny stated, holding my hand as we walked to the car.

“We are,” I agreed, opening up his door and waiting for him to slide in before I got in the driver’s side. “Then, lunch with Charlotte and Lucy.”

I had told him about the lunch plans several days ago, but he still looked nervous, and I reminded him, “You like Lucy, baby boy. Remember?”

Danny had been around Lucy quite a bit, with us looking at houses. We hadn’t had an official play date yet though, and Charlotte was pushing for one. She’d promised us lunch, and I thought that Danny really needed to spend time with some of the littles we’d be living near.

“I like Frankie better,” he informed me.

“Do you?” I said, for lack of a better response.

“Yes,” he said adamantly, looking out the window.

“Well, we’re having lunch with Lucy and Charlotte today,” I informed him. “Maybe another day, we can see if Frankie would like to play.”

“I don’t know if Frankie likes to play,” Danny said, still staring out the window. “She doesn’t seem like she likes to play.”

“What do you think she likes?” I asked, curious as to what he’d say.

“I don’t know,” he said. “But not playing. She’d still be fun though.”

“Okay,” I replied. “But don’t say that in front of Lucy and Charlotte though, okay, little man? That might hurt Lucy’s feelings.”

“I know,” he scoffed. 

I ignored the tone, focusing on the drive. I was eager to see the house. The pictures had been great, and it was near her. They’d just finished it up, and I thought that Danny would like it.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another little who isn't thrilled with a playdate, and Danny and Tyler may have finally found their house.

Charlotte’s POV

“Come on, sweetpea,” I said, impatiently.

Lucy was sitting on the floor. She had gotten dressed, but she still only had one of her sneakers on, and we really needed to get going so that we could meet Tyler at the house.

“I don’t wanna,” she grouched.

“Luce,” I sighed, getting down on my knees and grabbing her left foot. Jamming a sneaker on it, I lectured, “Don’t give mama a hard time, Lucy. I know that you wanted to go to the movies with Em, but you can do that another day. We had already committed to meeting up with Tyler and Danny. You like Mr. Tyler.”

“You committed.”

Taking a breath, I blew it out slowly before telling her, “Yes, I’m the one who said we would have a play date. But, you didn’t have a problem with it until Em invited you to the movies. We don’t change our plans just because something better comes along. It’s rude.”

She wasn’t helping, but she wasn’t fighting me putting her shoes on her, and I soon had the rainbow laces tied. Pulling her to her feet, I patted her butt affectionately.

“Okay, sweetpea. Let’s go see this new house.”

Lucy could be a crab when she got going, and I hoped the walk over to the home would help her get her into a better mood. It was going to be a long afternoon if it didn’t.

The home wasn’t far away. It just backed up to Sarah and Michael’s. Because of Lucy dragging her feet getting ready, I cut through the yards to get there, arriving just as Tyler pulled into the driveway. 

“Hi,” I greeted, taking a few steps back to grab Lucy and pull her up next to me. I gave her a look before smiling again at Tyler’s little boy. “Hi, Danny. I think this might be your lucky house.”

“We’ve looked at a million,” the little boy said.

“Twelve,” Tyler corrected, giving Danny his own look. “We’ve looked at twelve. Maybe thirteen will be our lucky number.”

“Let’s go inside,” I encouraged, wrapping an arm around Lucy and starting up the porch. “I’m feeling lucky.”

Danny’s POV

I hadn’t meant to sound crabby when I’d said that. I just didn’t want to get excited again. We’d seen twelve houses in person, yeah, but there were more we hadn’t looked at. There was a duplex a few blocks over that I’d seen online, but Charlotte told Daddy that was really the side of town with bigger littles. 

I squeezed Daddy’s hand, looking up at him. I was worried that he was going to be irritated. Really, I knew that he was irritated. That was a definite look he’d given me, a look that said he didn’t like my tone, but I hadn’t meant to have one.

Leaning into him, I let Miss Charlotte show us around. It was a little house, not like some of the others that I’d seen. A cape cod bungalow, there were only two bedrooms. That was definitely better.

“Shakespeare can have his own room,” Daddy said, hugging me into his side. “He’d like that, don’t you think?”

“Who’s Shakespeare?” Lucy asked.

“My cat,” I told her.

“Oh,” she said, looking mildly interested. “I like cats. Mama’s ‘llergic, so we can’t have any pets.”

Miss Charlotte smiled pleasantly at her, offering, “I said we could get one of those hairless cats.”

“Ick,” Lucy wrinkled her nose.

She was right. Cats weren’t supposed to be hairless. They were supposed to be very fluffy and preferably chunky, just like Shakespeare.

“Let’s look at the kitchen,” Daddy said, tugging me along.

I didn’t know anything about kitchens. Daddy did pretty much all the cooking anyway. I liked the way this one looked though. It was bright and airy. The kitchen sink looked into the backyard. That part was good. The whole room looked clean, with sunny walls and white appliances.

“Is it good for cooking in?” I asked him, nudging a little.

Tyler’s POV

He sounded so hopeful, as he asked me that question, and I smile at him. It was not a gourmet kitchen, laid out in an efficient triangle, like my dream kitchen would be. The appliances were not stainless steel, and the countertops were not granite. The floors were linoleum instead of wood or bamboo. 

But that kitchen of my dreams was really meant for looks, not use, and with the way that Danny was looking around this room, it would see a lot of use. I could picture putting a round, white, kitchen table to one side, where he could write lines while I cooked. 

I was no gourmet cook, and I did not need that kitchen I was imagining. This kitchen was good. It was a decent size and serviceable, and the look on his face was worth giving up the magazine images in my head.

The entire house was good. It was smaller than what I’d wanted, but Danny had really balked at the larger homes. 

“How big is it?” I asked Charlotte, looking around.

“1400 square feet,” she said, adding, “but that doesn’t take into account your usable outdoor space. More than one family is coveting the porch.”

The porch was nice, spanning the front of the home. It had a half wall around it, and there was absolutely space for furniture. 

“We could get a porch swing,” Danny told me excitedly, patting my arm. 

Realistically, the size wasn’t an issue. Danny didn’t want something huge, and it wasn’t like we’d be having a ton of overnight guests. With the HOA rules, I couldn’t think of more than a handful of people that I’d be allowed to invite overnight. 

There were still two bedrooms and two bathrooms. I could convert the second bedroom into an office. And although the living room was miniature, Charlotte had already assured me that just about everyone used their playroom for entertaining instead.

“Why don’t you and Danny talk,” Charlotte suggested. She handed over the keys. “Just come over once you’re done. I trust you to lock up.”

As soon as the door closed behind them, Danny turned to stare at me, saying determinedly, “I want this one.”

“We could afford something so much bigger though,” I pointed out.

“For what?” he asked. “A bigger house just means that we have to fill it with stuff and spend more time cleaning. It’s just us two.”

“And Shakespeare.”

“And Shakespeare,” he agreed. “And maybe a fuzzy little friend for Shakespeare-”

“What?” I asked him.

“We can talk about it later,” he answered me quickly. “I love this one, Daddy. It’s a good size for us. It’s way cheaper than the other houses they’ve shown us-”

  
I cocked my head, “It’s cheaper because it’s smaller.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “But we could afford to put a decent down payment on this one between the two of us, without waiting for my place to sell.”

“I can afford to buy us something bigger,” I told him, wanting to make sure that he absolutely wanted this one.

“I want this one,” he said stubbornly. “This one. I want the huge porch, and the big tub in the master bath, and those windows in our room, and this little house. This one.”

“Okay,” I agreed, taking his hand and kissing his knuckles. “This house. We’ll tell Charlotte.”

“Right now,” he insisted, starting toward the door. 

He didn’t want to wait another minute, but I didn’t either. Danny had been like Goldilocks with the other houses, and with my opinions added in, we could spend forever looking without finding something that was perfect for both of us. This house was good enough, and it would be perfect with Danny in it.


End file.
